The present invention broadly concerns devices, which may be used to deposit, refuse collected from a surface for disposal of the refuse. More particularly, the present invention concerns the manual collection of animal excrement from a surface on which a person walks such as a lawn area, a sidewalk, a driveway, a patio, and the like. The present invention specifically concerns the pick-up and removal of pet excrement.
Many human activities generate debris and waste of a wide variety of type. The management of waste through collection and disposal has increasingly become a concern to many cultures not only from a standpoint of living condition aesthetics, but more importantly for hygienic reasons. Not only is the disposal of waste generated by humans of concern to the hygienic environment, but also the collection and removal of animal refuse or excrement, particularly that excrement generated by pets. For example, dogs and cats are common domestic companions of many persons; removal of these animalsxe2x80x9d excrement or fecal material is necessary for a sanitary environment. Such fecal material may be deposited by the pet in both designated toilet areas for the animal and in more public areas when the animal is either allowed to roam free or is walked by its owners.
Indeed, many communities have enacted rules and regulations requiring pet owners to collect the fecal material from their animals or any other animal fecal material that may be deposited with in a designated area, typically a surface area that is defined as a yard of a particular property owner or property lessee. Naturally, deposit of such pet or animal fecal material occurs, since the animals are relatively uninhibited by any toilet habits when the animal is out of doors in a designated area. When the animal utilizes and a yard or private lawn or a xe2x80x9crunxe2x80x9d as a toilet location, the presence of fecal material creates a non-hygienic situation, especially since the yard area is typically shared by children who use the yard area as a play area. Should the fecal material reside in such areas even for a short duration, such presence the attracts undesired insects such as flies and the like, and bacterial contamination which further exacerbates the unsanitary conditions along with the resulting unpleasant odors. In addition, the fecal material itself can make an unsightly brown or dead spots in the lawn and could cause additional problems should parasites be present in the fecal material. For these reasons, sanitary conditions demand that fecal material be removed in a timely matter from the animal""s toilet area. This toilet area can cover anywhere that the animal can have a presence such as a line, a sidewalk, a driveway, a patio, or the like.
Many individuals find that the collection and disposal of animal excrement to be quite an undesirable or unpleasant task also, if this task is undertaken in properly such collection and disposable of the animal excrement can be unhealthy. Accordingly, many individuals resort either to wearing some type of protective gloves while collecting the fecal material or engage in the use of some sort of scooping implement to accomplish the collection portion of the task, in other words removing the pet excrement from the surface. Additionally, in the case of cat litter, many individuals utilize a slotted scoop, which allows the user to remove fecal material from the cat litter box while the particular litter falls through the slots and a scoop for reuse by the cat. The other portion of this unpleasant task concerns the disposal of the fecal material, wherein typically the fecal material is deposited in a trashcan. The deposit of the fecal material in the trashcan has its own attendant problems in that the fecal material in the trash can attracts undesired insects such as flies and the like, and results in bacterial contamination, and unpleasant odors which further exacerbates the unsanitary conditions.
Focusing on the disposal portion of this unpleasant task, it is surprising that there are few commercial products that are currently available for the sanitary removal of animal fecal material. There are a few prior art examples of water closets or toilets adapted for animal fecal material disposal. An example would be U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,989 to Sutton that discloses an enclosure that acts to funnel to direct animal fecal material from a depository aperture into a flushing cistern that works much like a human fecal material toilet to dispose of the animal fecal material. Sutton recommends that the animal fecal material be placed in a disposable paper bag prior to the fecal material being deposited in the aperture. This is necessary because there is a communication trough from the aperture to the toilet wherein the fecal material would adhere to the sides of the communication trough if it were not placed in a disposable paper bag, thus the aforementioned problems of placing the excrement in a trash can would exist within the communication trough. Any attempt to sanitize or clean the communication trough which would be required without the use of the disposable paper bag would be quite difficult as the trough is long and narrow making access in and to the interior of the trough difficult. Sutton""s remedy to the identified problem, however, requires that the excrement be placed into the disposable paper bag and that a supply of disposable paper bags to present thus, adding unnecessary complication to an already undesirable task. Sutton also recommends that the disposable paper bag have a glued edge portion to further allow the bag to be sealed prior to its deposit into the aperture, again making for the requirement of a specialized disposable paper bag that is not only sealable but must be highly water soluble so as to not plug up the sewer system.
Another prior example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,555 to Dennis that discloses a canine toilet where in the dog actually stands on the toilet and defecates into an opening with the flushing system of the toilet coming into operation once the dog stands on the appropriate platform. There is also included a xe2x80x9cpiddle postxe2x80x9d for the dog to position itself while assuming the typical three leg stance with one hind leg raised into the air for the dog (male in this case) to urinate against the xe2x80x9cpiddle postxe2x80x9d wherein the urine will flow into the toilet. While this is an admirable invention, it makes the assumption that the dog will use the toilet properly and certainly for a well-trained dog this may be possible, however, it is probably an unrealistic expectation that all dogs can be trained to use the toilet properly especially in the case of puppies, stray animals, or older dogs. Thus, there will still be an unavoidable amount of animal fecal material that is deposited around the yard that will have to be cleaned up in a conventional manner with the attendant aforementioned problems of fecal collection and disposal. Other prior art examples that are similar in function to Dennis in that a specially designed toilet apparatus or device is employed to accommodate the animal, U.S. Pat. No. 2,204,416 to Kramer discloses a dog house like enclosure having a bottom tray with a water flush that is activated by the animal entering and exciting the enclosure in an attempt to collect and dispose of the animal fecal material. Another example would be U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,554 to Tumminaro which discloses a special the animal toilet, however, the requires a human individual to flush the fecal material from the toilet. Further examples of animal toilets also include U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,865 to Sinclair which discloses an animal toilet that is not connected to a sewer system and would still require manual disposal of the fecal material and U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,812 to Edwards that discloses an animal toilet and includes a mechanical wiping action of the bowl to overcome the problem of the dog not centering itself over the toilet when the dog defecates. These aforementioned patents all have the same problem as Dennis in that they assume the animal can be completely trained to utilize the special toilet.
Accordingly, there has been a long recognized problem to minimize the unpleasant task of collecting and disposing of animal fecal material, given that the collection portion of the unpleasant task as unlikely to change anytime in the near future due to the nature of an animal defecating on a random basis anywhere over a particular surface area, there is a significant and long felt need for an improved device that focuses upon the disposal portion of this unpleasant task without the need for any special physical collection implements, tools, or any special container devices required for disposing of the fecal material.
The present invention is a collection device that is residing in an exterior environment for the depositing of refuse material for disposal with the refuse material removed from a surface and then deposited into the collection device that utilizes a pressurized fluid flow to dispose of the refuse material by transferring the refuse material and the fluid to a sewer system. Broadly, the present invention includes, a pedestal body having a longitudinal axis that includes a pedestal first end and a pedestal second end, the pedestal body also includes an internal void to allow fluid and refuse material communication from the pedestal second end to the pedestal first end. The present invention also includes, a receptacle having a base with a surrounding sidewall extending from the base to define a receptacle interior that is separated from the exterior environment, the sidewall terminating in an opening forming a receptacle rim that communicates between the exterior environment and the receptacle interior. The sidewall also has a sidewall aperture adjacent to the opening, with the base being attached to the pedestal second end with the base having a base aperture to allow fluid and refuse material communication from the receptacle interior to the void and onward through the pedestal first end into the sewer system. Also included is a fluid nozzle that is located in the exterior environment is positioned to direct the pressurized fluid to flow from the nozzle such that the pressurized fluid when exiting the nozzle is in an open flow state over an open gap distance formed between the nozzle and the sidewall aperture, wherein the fluid flows from the nozzle over the gap distance then through the sidewall aperture and into the receptacle interior.